Today, I’m featuring a guest post by Barry Hatfield, one of my favorite new massage bloggers. Barry has participated in both of the blogging challenges and has been doing a terrific job of educating his clients. He also usually makes me laugh at least once per post.
I started a client oriented blog for my massage business last summer. I’m far from an expert but with some help I have learned a few things since then.
Get started
If you have been thinking about blogging for a while, make a decision and do it. There are several free sites (I went with Word Press) that are easy to set up. When you get comfortable with having a blog, you can move to another platform if you want to get into more tech-y stuff.
In order to have a blog you have to write, so …
Get writing
I decided to blog for my clients. So for topics I began thinking of the things I talk about with them. I asked some friends what questions they have about massage, and what their perception of massage is. I looked at my Facebook business page and emails I had sent to clients and expanded some of those into posts. I’ve tried to answer some questions the public has about massage.
Choose your favorite method (I type instead of using paper) and start to write. If you are feeling stuck, either take a break and come back to it at a set time, or decide to work on it for a time, like 45 minutes. Even if you can’t come up with complete sentences, write your ideas down. Getting something visible can help the post to begin to come into focus and it prompts other related ideas.
Write in your voice as if you are speaking to your audience. I have a sense of humor and write a few posts that try to be funny. However sometimes it slips in unplanned, because it would be something I would say out loud.
An interesting thing happens with some posts. You may start with an idea in mind, but as you go it changes direction and you end up with something else entirely. That’s fine, because the second thing was on your mind also, and you can go back to the original idea later.
It gets easier
Once I got going I kept coming up with more ideas instead of running out of them. Some posts seem to pop on the screen and I don’t have to change much before publishing. A few are a struggle – I have found the topics that mean the most to me are harder because I want it to be just right.
Read some other blogs, websites, and follow other people in your field on social media for more ideas. Obviously don’t copy their work, but give your point of view to your readers. Other bloggers are great at supporting you as well.
Publish it
There comes a point in time where your post could be a little better, but not by much. If you’ve made your point and checked everything, publish it. You could change a few words here and there, but it won’t make a dramatic difference. It won’t be worth the time to keep tweaking it.
When you look at your posts later, you will see things you could have done differently. That’s good. It means you are working at getting better. Also when you look at it later, you have changed and the message you are telling has changed.
It can be a lot of fun. It’s also a fear that can be faced and overcome. When you do that once, other fears are easier to take on.
About Barry:
Barry is a licensed massage therapist with a solo practice in Hudson, Ohio. He writes a client directed blog at
http://hudsonmassage.wordpress.com/
He can be found on twitter @BarryHatfieldMT